Monday, July 28, 2025 | 5:00-6:30 PM PT
Centennial Ballroom
Ted W. Lieu represents California’s 36th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives.
Aurelia Friedman, Special Projects Manager and Senior Field Representative, and a proud Bruin alum, join us from the Office of Congressman Ted W. Lieu (CA-36).
Office of Ted W. Lieu
Adriana Galván, Ph.D.
Adriana Galván is a Professor of Psychology and the Dean of Undergraduate Education at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is also the Co-Executive Director of the UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent committed to improving the scientific understanding of the period of adolescence. As a neuroscientist her career has been focused on adolescent brain development and how it supports developmental milestones during this significant developmental window. Her research expertise focuses on characterizing the neural mechanisms underlying adolescent behavior to inform policies that impact young people. Dr. Galván has published over 130 scientific articles on the topic and is the author of The Neuroscience of Adolescence (Cambridge University Press). Her research, generously funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and numerous private foundations, has been featured in several media outlets including The New York Times, Washington Post, PBSNewsHour, and NPR. She received her B.A. in Neuroscience and Behavior from Barnard College, Columbia University, and her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Cornell. She has received multiple recognitions for her work, including from the National Academy of Sciences, American Psychological Association, Cognitive Neuroscience Society and William T. Grant Foundation. She is also the recipient of the UCLA Gold Shield Faculty Prize. In 2018 she was a Fulbright Scholar in Barcelona and in 2019 she received the White House Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineers (PECASE) award.
Julio Frenk became the seventh chancellor of UCLA on January 1, 2025. He also holds an academic appointment as distinguished professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management within the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. He is an accomplished university administrator and leading global health researcher who has held positions in government and academia, both in the U.S. and in Mexico.
Before becoming UCLA’s chancellor, Frenk served as president of the University of Miami from 2015 to 2024, where he also held academic appointments as a tenured professor. Prior to joining the University of Miami, he served for almost seven years as dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and as the T & G Angelopoulos Professor of Public Health and International Development.
Frenk served as the federal secretary of health of Mexico from 2000 to 2006. In this role, he spearheaded an ambitious overhaul of the nation’s health system, introducing Seguro Popular — a groundbreaking program of comprehensive universal health coverage that extended healthcare access to over 55 million previously uninsured individuals. He was also the founding director-general of Mexico’s National Institute of Public Health and has held senior roles at the World Health Organization and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Frenk earned his medical degree from the National University of Mexico, as well as a master of public health and a joint Ph.D. in medical care organization and in sociology from the University of Michigan. His scholarly production, which includes close to 200 articles in academic ournals, as well as many books and book chapters, has been cited more than 37,000 times. In addition, he has written five novels for young people explaining the functions of the human body.
Frenk is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Medicine of Mexico and El Colegio Nacional, the most prestigious learned society in Mexico. He has received numerous recognitions, including the Clinton Global Citizen Award, the Bouchet Medal for Outstanding Leadership from Yale University and the Welch-Rose Award for Distinguished Service from the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health. In 2024, he was named one of TIME magazine’s top Latino leaders for his contributions to public health and higher education.
Julio Frenk, Ph.D.
UCLA Chancellor
Distinguished Professor, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Tuesday, July 29, 2025 | 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM PT
Centennial Ballroom
Stephanie Correa, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, UCLA Integrative Biology and Physiology
Vice Chair of Undergraduate Education
Stephanie Correa has a BA in Biology from Pomona College and a PhD in Neurobiology and Behavior from Cornell University. Her dissertation research with Elizabeth Adkins-Regan and Patricia Johnson tested the effects of ovarian steroids on sex determination in birds. Her postdoctoral research at Boston University Medical Center identified strain differences in the testis determination pathway in mice. Postdoctoral research with Holly Ingraham at UCSF identified neurons in the hypothalamus that regulate physical activity and body weight in female mice. Research in her lab aims to understand the effects of sex steroids on the neural circuits that control temperature and energy balance.
The Correa Lab is broadly interested in understanding the effects of sex steroid hormones on physiology. We have identified specific estrogen-sensitive neuron populations in female mice that regulate key metabolic processes such as heat generation, torpor, and feeding. These findings offer valuable insights into how estrogens impact the brain and overall body physiology. If these mechanisms also apply to humans, the neuron populations and gene targets that we have discovered in mice could potentially be leveraged to modify energy expenditure and thermoregulation without the risks associated with estrogen therapy.
Currently, we are investigating how fluctuating estrogen levels affect estrogen-sensitive regions of the hypothalamus that regulate energy intake and expenditure. Specifically, our focus is on understanding how estrogens influence signaling pathways and neural activity within these regions. We propose that estrogens simultaneously impact multiple brain regions and neural circuits to coordinate energy balance adjustments that meet the unique metabolic demands of various reproductive states.
COOL PEEPS WITH PHDS PANEL
Tuesday, July 25, 2024 | 12:00 PM PT
Centennial Ballroom
Austin Coley, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Neurobiology
UCLA Geffen School of Medicine
Austin Coley is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurobiology at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. His lab focuses on the neural substrates, neural population activity and synaptic properties involved in depressive-like behaviors.
He received his bachelor’s degree in biology from North Carolina Central University and a master’s degree in cell physiology from Case Western Reserve University. He then received his Ph.D. in neuroscience from Drexel University under the mentorship of Wen-Jun Gao studying the synaptic proteins and mechanisms involved in schizophrenia. As a postdoctoral fellow in Kay Tye’s Laboratory at the Salk Institute he studied the effect of neural circuits on behavior and state-dependent and region-specific cellular aberrations implicated in neuropsychiatric conditions.
Elizabeth Gonzalez, Ph.D.
Elizabeth Gonzalez took on the role as inaugural Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) Director in UCLA’s Office of the Chancellor in 2022. She has led institutional transformation efforts at the UC and California Community College systems, where she championed collaborative innovation for Latinx, low-income, and first-generation students’ success.
She is a proud UC Alumni, earning her B.A. in psychology and education studies from UCLA, an M.S. and Ph.D. in psychology from UC Santa Cruz. As a Ñuu Savi (Mixtec) migrant from Oaxaca and a first-generation college graduate, her journey reflects the promise of equal opportunity.
Marques Vestal, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Urban Planning
UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs
Marques Vestal is an Assistant Professor of Urban Planning and Critical Black Urbanism. He serves as a Faculty Advisor for Million Dollar Hoods, a community-driven and multidisciplinary initiative documenting the human and fiscal costs of mass incarceration in Los Angeles. He also serves as a historical consultant for the Luskin Center for History and Policy. Marques is a tenant of Los Angeles and a member of the South Central local of the Los Angeles Tenants Union.
Marques is an urban historian studying the social history of residential property in Black Los Angeles during the rebellious twentieth century. His work links property conflict—the everyday contracts, solicitations, complaints, lawsuits, and murders over property—to broader transformations of real estate, urban development, and Black liberation. He argues that this space of incessant conflict is the unwritten housing policy of the United States.
Marques’ research interests are broad, but center on the twentieth-century experience of a few key political relations to land: property, housing insecurity, municipal incapacity, and racial capitalism. Having witnessed, archivally and firsthand, the violence of Los Angeles’ rental housing markets, he is dedicated to projects that advance social housing and horizontal tenant governance.